All of Irish 1911 census now online

The National Archives of Ireland (NAI) has made all of the 1911 census of Ireland available online. You can search the census and view a transcript of the basic information, as well as digitised copies of the Household Return (Form A), Enumerator’s Abstract (Form N), House and Building Return (Form B1) and Out-Offices and Farm-Steadings Return (Form B2) for all 32 counties free of charge. This covers both the present Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The NAI says that, by the end of September, the census website will be re-developed to include a full transcription of all of the data on the household forms for 1911, including religion, occupation, relationship to head of family, literacy status, marital status, county or country of origin, Irish language proficiency, specified illnesses, and child survival information.

The 1901 census of Ireland, with all data transcribed, is scheduled to be launched between late 2009 and early 2010. You can view online transcriptions of the 1901 census for some counties already:

Although the first official census of Ireland was taken in 1821, unfortunately, most of the 1821-91 census returns have been destroyed (the first four in a fire at the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922). A few fragments, transcripts and abstracts have survived, and you can find many of them via the Census Finder website.